Australian Policy Research Articles

What features of education policies are effective in facilitating successful outcomes for Australian Department of Education students in out of home care?

AbstractAustralian and international research has consistently revealed that children residing in Out of Home Care (OOHC) experience low academic achievement, high rates of suspension, high rates of early school drop‐out and poor representation in post school study. To address the issues experienced by many students in OOHC, trauma informed policies have been introduced in schools and education districts, both in Australia and internationally. Informed by current research and by the Trauma Informed Approach Guidelines, developed by the US Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), this research aimed to identify and analyse current OOHC education policies and support documents implemented by Australian State and Territory Departments of Education. Using a thematic content analysis of national and international research on the concerning educational outcomes of OOHC students, a policy analysis framework was created and used as the tool to analyse Australian OOHC education policies currently implemented by state and territory Departments of Education. Considerable variations were evident in OOHC education policies throughout Australian Departments of Education, with only the states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria having policies explicitly for OOHC students. Significant variations also existed in the levels and types of support provided between Australian states and territories. Australian Departments of Education, schools and teacher practitioners can do more to further enhance the educational experience of students residing in OOHC. Suggestions have been made on how this can be achieved.

Theory of change for addressing sex and gender bias, invisibility and exclusion in Australian health and medical research, policy and practice

Sex and gender are inadequately considered in health and medical research, policy and practice, leading to preventable disparities in health and wellbeing. Several global institutions, journals, and funding bodies have developed policies and guidelines to improve the inclusion of diverse participants and consideration of sex and gender in research design and reporting and the delivery of clinical care. However, according to recent evaluations, these policies have had limited impact on the inclusion of diverse research participants, adequate reporting of sex and gender data and reducing preventable inequities in access to, and quality provision of, healthcare. In Australia, the Sex and Gender Policies in Medical Research (SGPMR) project aims to address sex and gender bias in health and medical research by (i) examining how sex and gender are currently considered in Australian research policy and practice; (ii) working with stakeholders to develop policy interventions; and (iii) understanding the wider impacts, including economic, of improved sex and gender consideration in Australian health and medical research. In this paper we describe the development of a theory of change (ToC) for the SGPMR project. The ToC evolved from a two-stage process consisting of key stakeholder interviews and a consultation event. The ToC aims to identify the pathways to impact from improved consideration of sex and gender in health and medical research, policy and practice, and highlight how key activities and policy levers can lead to improvements in clinical practice and health outcomes. In describing the development of the ToC, we present an entirely novel framework for outlining how sex and gender can be appropriately considered within the confines of health and medical research, policy and practice.

What can we learn from disability policy to advance our understanding of how to operationalise intersectionality in Australian policy frameworks?

AbstractIntersectional theory recognises inequity is rarely the result of one social identity; social identities, and their interaction with context and power relations, offer some protective factors, while marginalises others. Taking an intersectional approach to social policy has the potential to provide deeper insights in terms of identifying and responding to needs, and understanding the impact of policies and specific interventions for diverse people. While Australian social policies, such as national strategies, are beginning to recognise inequity is likely to be higher for some social identities than others, a recent review of Australian policy and how it responds to people with disability suggests policies do not yet appear to take an intersectional approach. Drawing on this review, we discuss the challenges in operationalising intersectionality, explore how they may be overcome, and identify considerations for scholars and future research opportunities to advance our understanding of how to operationalise intersectionality in social policy in Australia. We suggest intersectionality requires a broader cultural shift across society and professions to recognise people have multiple identities, statuses, and life circumstances, and the way they interact with the context and power relations affects how they experience life.Points for practitioners Intersectionality recognises the interaction between social identities, context, and power relations. The research note aims to advance our understanding of how to operationalise intersectionality in Australian social policy. This note builds on a review of Australian policy frameworks and whether they take an intersectional approach to addressing disability. The research note identifies considerations for researchers and research opportunities. A broader cultural shift across society is required to recognise how different factors affect how people experience life.

Chaplains in Australian public schools? A matter of philanthropy

ABSTRACT This paper uses the case of chaplains in Australian public schools to construct a Foucauldian dispositif. In examining the interplay between discourse and material structures, we argue that the embedding of chaplaincy in public schooling is driven by economic rather than purely ideological discourse. We highlight the evolving social and political dynamics and the construction and regulation of knowledge and practices, demonstrating that philanthropy is central to student welfare provision in Australian public schools. Using excerpts from parliamentary debates in the Australian Federal Hansard, policy documents, case law, and Australian tax regulations, we identify significant political moments that position chaplains as critical welfare workers in public schools. This analysis underscores the subtle, often invisible power of philanthropy in sustaining and deeply embedding chaplaincy within public schools.

Comparative Analysis of Online Assessment Methods and their Impact on Student Satisfaction in Higher Education in Australia

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the accessibility and inclusivity in online education: a comparative study of policies and practices in Australia. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The study compared Australian policies and practices in online education accessibility and inclusivity, revealing notable gaps in implementation despite progress. It emphasized the necessity of comprehensive policies and ongoing educator training to address diverse student needs effectively. Overall, it highlighted the importance of continual improvement to ensure equitable access for all students in online education. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social model of disability, universal design for learning (UDL) & critical pedagogy may be used to anchor future studies on the accessibility and inclusivity in online education: a comparative study of policies and practices in Australia. Develop guidelines and best practices for inclusive course design and delivery in online education, tailored to the Australian context. Advocate for the integration of accessibility and inclusivity mandates into national and institutional policies governing online education in Australia.

The Early-Phase Electric Vehicle Transition in an Australian City: Emerging Policy, Uptake Trajectories and Socio-Spatial Distribution in Melbourne

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the uptake and spatial distribution of electric vehicles (EVs) in Melbourne to assess the scale and rate of transition in the context of emerging policy. The Australian policy and uptake experience of the EV transition has had limited research attention, with little focus on spatial distribution. The paper assesses the recent uptake of EVs and the spatial distribution of EV growth. Based on literature and local data, the paper projects the distribution of EV spatial demand at the suburban scale. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy issues and questions arising from an EV transition in Melbourne.

“You're on your own, kid”: A critical analysis of Australian universities' international student mental health strategies

AbstractMental ill‐health is a serious and growing problem among university students in Australia. Within this cohort, international students are particularly vulnerable. International students in Australia have fewer social rights than domestic students and are at elevated risk of social isolation, exploitation in employment, precarious housing, financial insecurity, and racism and discrimination. When mental health challenges arise, international students are also less likely than their domestic counterparts to access support services. Against the backdrop of this escalating problem, this article presents a critical analysis of Australian universities' policy approaches to international student mental health. We ask: (a) How many universities have such policies publicly available, and (b) how do these policies understand and seek to address the problem of international student distress? Drawing on a documentary analysis of publicly available university mental health strategies, we find that—in the comparatively rare cases where such documents exist—international students' mental ill‐health is generally framed in these documents as an individual concern, placing the onus on individual students to develop “resilience” and/or seek out help. Leveraging theoretical insights concerning the collective production of (mental) health and illness, we caution that this individualisation of student distress naturalises and depoliticises the logics of financial exploitation and neglect that contribute to many international students' mental health problems to begin with.

Immigrants and innovators: financial inclusion and the ‘de-banking’ of the digital asset industry

ABSTRACT ‘De-banking’ refers to banks limiting or withdrawing banking services from perceived ‘high-risk’ clients. ‘High risk’ is not merely commercial risk relating to a client’s ability to pay. It also includes ‘non-commercial’ risks such as client dealings in illicit funds or activities. Debanking decisions might also be made on operational-cost grounds where continued servicing of a particular customer base becomes uneconomical. In Australia, the de-banking issue has impacted migrant communities. More recently, de-banking has impeded the ability of digital assets service providers. Under the guise of rigorous compliance legal standards, Australian banks have limited or even cut-off banking services to many Australian digital asset firms. As the financial gatekeepers to the Australian economy, Australian banks (already very protected from competitors) are undermining an industry that could potentially compete for market share. Examining strategies adopted in other jurisdictions, Australian policy makers should supplement the introduction of a licensing regime, as proposed by the Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2023 (Cth), with additional balanced measures in order to support innovation in the digital asset sector and maintain financial integrity.

Defending Primary Victims Who Face Criminal Charges for the Use of Defensive Force against Their Abusive Partners: Attempting to Change ‘Laws’ Practices’

Australian lawyers, scholars and policy makers have grappled for decades with the barriers faced by victim-survivors in successfully raising self-defence in response to criminal charges for the use of force against their abusive partners. In this article we discuss a recent legal innovation developed to address similar barriers in the New Zealand context. The defence in R v Ruddelle was ground-breaking in Australasia in that expert evidence on ‘intimate partner violence entrapment’ was admitted at trial from an expert who was not a psychologist or psychiatrist. The aim was to assist the jury in more accurately understanding the facts for the purposes of determining whether the Indigenous defendant’s defensive force was ‘reasonable’ in self-defence. Similar evidence was provided at sentencing. In this article we assess the gains that were made in taking such an approach at sentencing, as well as the limitations of this strategy at trial in this particular case.

‘Two sides of the same coin’? A longitudinal analysis evaluating whether financial austerity accelerated NHS privatisation in England 2013-2020

ObjectivesTo understand the relationship between increasing privatisation of the NHS and austerity cuts to public funding.DesignLongitudinal analysis.Setting170 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England between 2013 and 2020.InterventionThe UK austerity programme,...

Fiscal Austerity and Low-Income Mortgage Policies During the Clinton Administration

Fiscal Austerity and Low-Income Mortgage Policies During the Clinton Administration

호주의 불법 마약 관련 법과 통제정책:한국과의 간략한 비교

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of Australian drug laws, highlighting the evolution of laws from the late 19th century to the present, and comparing them with South Korean drug policies. It begins by exploring the historical context of Australian drug laws, highlighting the shift from minimal intervention in the late 19th century, characterized by the widespread use of drugs like opium and morphine, to more stringent drug control policies in the early 20th century. This change was influenced by international developments and domestic concerns, notably racial prejudices and the rise of international drug conventions. The paper then delves into the legal frameworks governing drug offences in Australia, explaining the interplay of federal and state laws. It outlines the specific provisions and penalties, with an emphasis on the Criminal Code Act 1995(Cth) and the definitions of serious drugs. A detailed examination of drug offences under Federal law is provided, including distribution, production, import-export and possession offences, along with their respective penalties. Furthermore, the paper discusses the enforcement and prosecution of drug laws in Australia, detailing the roles of law enforcement agencies, the prosecution process, and the judiciary's role in interpreting and applying these laws. It also highlights the shift in Australian drug policy towards harm reduction and public health approaches. This section includes case studies of harm reduction initiatives in Australia. A notable aspect of the paper is the comparison between Australian and South Korean drug laws, elucidating their similarities and differences. While both countries adopt a strict stance on illicit drugs and have similar drug classification systems, they differ in their approach to personal use and possession, harm reduction focus, legal status of cannabis, and cultural perceptions of drug use. The paper concludes by emphasizing the complexity of drug legislation and policy in Australia, shaped by international conventions and domestic priorities. It notes that Australian drug laws strike a balance between prohibition, control, and public health, providing valuable insights for international audiences. The paper also recognizes the dynamic nature of Australian drug law, suggesting that its evolution could significantly influence global drug policy, especially with emerging challenges like synthetic drugs and online drug trafficking.

Are local public expenditure reductions associated with increases in inequality in emergency hospitalisation? Time-series analysis of English local authorities from 2010 to 2017

BackgroundReductions in local government funding implemented in 2010 due to austerity policies have been associated with worsening socioeconomic inequalities in mortality. Less is known about the relationship of these reductions...

“There’s No Way of Growing”: Subjective Dimensions of Precarity Among Young Spanish Adults

AbstractThis article analyses the subjective dimension of the experience of precarity among young Spanish adults, a group particularly affected by the 2008 crisis and the austerity policies that followed. Based on qualitative research, we analyse how precarity affects the ideas that young people construct of themselves and their situation. The results show their assumption of the normative aspects of the idea of transition to adulthood and their feeling of inadequacy with their own present. In interpreting their situation, two opposing discourses are revealed: one involving self-blame and the other pointing to social and structural factors as the cause of their malaise. Finally, the young people make some positive re-readings of their circumstances, which involve subjective work to cope with their situation of vulnerability and which is based on valuing the expressive aspects of work and a lifestyle that is more flexible and less standardised than that of past generations.

Distraction in Australian language education policy: a call to re-centre language rights

ABSTRACT In this paper, we provide an overview of the policies that have existed in relation to Australian First Nations students’ languages, and English language and literacy learning before exploring how the politics of distraction manifests in this context. We then share our findings of an analysis of Australian language education policies for First Nations children and the media discourses which surround them. We argue that, in the context of First Nations languages and language learners, ‘language’ is conflated with either ‘literacy’ or ‘culture’ to distract from the sovereign language rights of First Nations peoples in Australia. We draw on the notion of ‘policy narrowing’ to explain this policy distraction and the ways in which it reproduces educational inequities for First Nations students in the Australian schooling system. To counter this, and the surrounding media discourses, governing educational bodies should re-centre language rights and language learner diversity in policymaking.

The things students don’t say: theorising Narrative Identity to understand non-traditional students’ experiences in higher education

AbstractA persistent challenge for Australian higher education policymakers and researchers has been to understand why policies and practices have met with limited success in widening the participation and attainment of non-traditional students. This paper explores theorising Narrative Identity as a constructive methodological framework for understanding non-traditional students’ experiences in higher education. Using this approach, I critically analyse the contrasting experiences of three non-traditional students who successfully transitioned to university via an enabling program but who had significantly different (and unanticipated) levels of engagement and success in their studies. ‘Transformation’ emerged as a recurring theme in students’ perceptions of becoming academically capable students. Applying a social constructionist lens, I explore the intersections and interactions between discourses of disadvantage and transformation within the context of neoliberal higher education structural discourses. Interview data conveys students’ changing values and behaviours, revealed in their rejection of prior ‘not capable’ identities and performance of their new ‘capable student’ identity. Students’ understandings of self provide insights relevant to the sustainability of their ‘capable student’ identity and, therefore, the quality of their engagement and success. The paper concludes with a consideration of Australian higher education policy and urges greater consideration of identity challenges faced by non-traditional HE students.

Representation of migrant accents in media discourse

Abstract This study looks at how migrants’ accents are portrayed, labelled, and constructed in media discourse, investigating media coverage of migrants’ accents in the Australian press from 2007 to 2017, a period highlighted by changes in Australian citizenship policies and public discourse. While language has been extensively discussed in policy discourse, there has been a notable dearth of research on the coexistence of dialects and accents within official languages as portrayed in media platforms. Using a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of 2,657,016 words from Australian newspaper articles, the study applies raciolinguistic ideologies to show how the press justifies and legitimizes migrant accent-related issues. The results suggest that speakers of Inner Circle English variants are positioned differently from non-white/Outer and Expanding Circle speakers. Speakers of the Inner Circle were far more likely than other speakers to have their accents described as ‘broad’ or ‘thick’, and they were more likely to have the national variation they spoke specifically named. Others, in contrast, regularly described racialized speakers as simply having a ‘foreign’ accent, and many of them frequently claimed trying to ‘change’ their accent or ‘fake’ an Australian accent in an effort to gain access to employment and broader social acceptance. These results emphasize the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that non-white migrant speakers are positioned as incompetent speakers and demonstrate how raciolinguistic ideologies, linguistic racism, and accent laboring concerns are widespread in Australian society. These findings highlight the significance of corpus approaches for studying language related issues and provide insight into accent biases produced by the media in Australian society.

It never rains but it pours: Austerity and mortality rate in peripheral areas

This study examines the impact of austerity measures on mortality rates across Italian regions from 2003 to 2018. Since 2007, regions experiencing substantial healthcare financial deficits have been required to implement recovery plans (RPs). We use a recent difference-in-differences staggered matching estimator to assess the effects of this austerity policy on municipal-level monthly mortality rates. This allows us to evaluate the policy’s spatial heterogeneity across treated municipalities, accounting for their distance from the nearest hospital. The analysis reveals a significant negative impact of austerity measures on health, particularly in peripheral areas and among vulnerable populations. Mortality rates are higher in regions under RPs, with this effect escalating with increasing distance from hospitals. The policy’s impact is also more pronounced among vulnerable populations, with differences observed between genders and across seasons.

Community sport, Australian sport policy, and advocacy: The views of community sport club officials

AbstractIn Australia, the policy priorities and processes of government and national governing bodies of sport impact how community sport organizations operate. This study explored the views of community sport club (CSC) officials (n = 53) in the Illawarra region in New South Wales, where there is a disparity in impact compared with their better‐resourced urban counterparts concerning sustainability, policy, and advocacy matters. Participants were surveyed for their views about the typically top‐down policy processes, inter‐organizational relationships, and advocacy for community sport. CSC officials participated in an online survey to assess opinions on resource issues and policy processes. The findings demonstrated that community sport is challenging to sustain and that CSC officials have little influence on policy. The outcome points to an appetite for advocacy from CSC officials in policy creation. Further, the Advocacy Coalition Framework is proffered as a platform for evaluating the viability of advocacy within community sport.

“Consider Carefully the Best Use of Our Limited Resources”: Australian Space Policy, 1960–72

In Australia's long engagement with space activities, the 1960s are singled out as a particular period of technological achievement. In turn, these achievements are often described as having been a potential foundation for an expanded Australian space programme that was rejected by the Australian government. However, these arguments, which might be termed a narrative of “missed opportunity” in writing about Australia's space past, are rarely made with reference to the archival record. This article argues that analysis of key decisions around space during the 1960s show that rather than being dismissive of space technology, the Australian government was cognisant of the potential benefits of space. It was supportive of Australian involvement when it met with broader national needs and willing to expend significant government resources in investigating and supporting space endeavours. Equally, it declined to expand Australia's expenditure on space when, like any other policy area, the proposals did not meet Australian needs, were poorly designed, or both.